


Forgotten

by KRiley



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Battle of Hogwarts, Battle of Hogwarts AU, Gen, Good Slytherins, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Missing Scene, Slytherin
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-22
Updated: 2017-07-22
Packaged: 2018-12-05 08:15:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,512
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11574060
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KRiley/pseuds/KRiley
Summary: A secret kept by Slytherins for generations, how they did not simply cower in the dungeons, but instead fought alongside their fellow students.---It's really more a headcanon that I finally decided to put into words. Un-beta'd so any mistakes are my own. If you find any, let me know. English is not, in fact, my native language. Constructive citicism always welcome! This is the first thing I have ever posted on here though, so please be nice.





	Forgotten

Slytherin House had a reputation to maintain. They were the snakes, feared and envied and therefore hated, or at least, that's the narrative most of them chose to hear. They knew that the other houses, most wizards around the world actually, knew them mostly for their dark past, their megalomaniacal members that had grown into warmongers and had ended an uncountable amount of lives. This prejudice had made them cautious to the extreme, exclusionary. They could understand their fellow snakes' hunger for power, be it in different forms. They could understand being willing to do whatever it took to get where you wanted to be, but they were wary of most others. Outsiders used tricks they didn't comprehend, and defined loyalty differently. Some of the Slytherins managed easily to make friends outside of their house, others made none at all, spurred on by that age-old idea of being better, being purer than all the rest. But then the war returned, and lines were drawn on the castle grounds.

 

Maybe war had never left them.

 

Hogwarts was under siege. People had died, were dying, and more would follow. Then He asked for Harry Potter. One life, to save a whole castle. Pansy Parkinson was not the only one who considered it, drew up the balance, and decided she would take the deal. She wasn't the only Slytherin, and not only Slytherins agreed with her. There were Gryffindors who wanted so badly to be brave, but their bravery had fallen short in the face of all the horror and cruelty. Ravenclaws, who above all valued intelligence and creativity, whose logic oriented brains drew the conclusion that maybe this battle could no longer be won, but they might still win the war if they conceded this fight. They saw that one life, would be a trade made with aching heart, but reasoning mind. Hufflepuffs who wanted justice. Justice for the innocents slaughtered, who shuddered at the idea of another innocent being killed, but who could not justify the loss of children to a war they had nothing to do with, not anymore. They just wanted to do the right thing, but in the midst of this much violence, right and wrong have no say.

When Snape and Voldemort's followers had been driven from the school by  Harry and the Order, three houses had cheered. Slytherin, intimately familiar with the people making up the enemy lines, knew in that moment it was hardly the beginning of it all. Then there were little girls screaming, and Voldemort spoke to them and Pansy spoke to the school and Slytherin was banished to the darkest corner of the castle. Again.

 

Only... No.

Not this time.

This was their fight as well.

 

Filch was easily taken care of. Petrified, and deposited in an empty dungeon. It was a sixth year, only barely seventeen, who spoke up eventually. Members of the order who fought in the Battle of Hogwarts would be remembered by everyone. Her name would not be among them, but Slytherin house always looked after its own. They would remember her.

 

She stepped into the middle of the group, and made eye contact with the children surrounding her. Because that's what they all were; children. All of them. But their home was under attack and they would not sit idly by. They were Slytherin, a house whose reputation had been high-jacked by dark wizards and bigots from all over the world for far too long. She had had enough, and so she spoke.

 

"1st, 2nd and 3rd years, go to your rooms. Get your spell books and all the warm clothing and food you can manage, then move down deeper into the dungeons, pick one, and lock yourselves in together. You will not be fighting today. I will not have the blood of thirteen year olds on my hands." If this had been any other house, perhaps some murmurs of discontent would have risen up, but not here. Not in Slytherin, where they were cunning enough to recognize a capable leader when they saw one and knew which orders were arguable, and which would be followed to the letter without a second thought. Where rebellion didn't start with an angry shout, but rather with stiff backs, high chins and lowered eyes, following Filch into the dungeons under the hateful looks of their schoolmates.

 

"4th years, I'd prefer for you to join them, but I know some of you," A grim smile aimed somewhere to her right, at a 14 year old boy who was very determined not to cry. Her little brother. "And I know I wouldn't be able to stop you if I tried. So you choose yourselves. Stay or go with the younger students and protect them. No one will judge you. Go now, do as I told you." Approximately half the students that had gathered together shuffled away quickly to collect their things. There wasn't much time, so the girl set her shoulders and resumed the role of child general. "This goes for all of you. No one will judge you if you will not fight with us. We all know who is out there. We will be facing family, cousins, aunts and uncles, brothers, sisters and parents. None of us will make you choose between your family out there and your family in here. All I ask is that you protect them." She looked down the dark stone hallway, where the younger students were quietly following orders. "They have least of all a part in this war, and I'll not have them bear any more burdens." Her face hardened as she looked sharply at every face in the circle. "If you don't wish to fight the intruders because due to some misguided upbringing you still actually find yourself agreeing with them, I suggest you simply shut up and stay behind to help as well. We do not want to hear your reasons or excuses." She let the moment linger for a second and dismissed them with a curt nod. Some more students filed away. and finally the young witch felt her eyes water with hot tears. She had assembled her army within what had roughly been 20 minutes. She had never despised the Wizarding World more.

 

"I wish you wouldn't fight either," she finally admits "I wish we could afford to ask you not to." She made sure to lock eyes with every person still standing with her. "But that is not the world we live in. We are Slytherin House, and we will defend our own." She gritted her teeth. "Take off your ties." Quietly, and not without doubt, the students did as she said. "Jumpers too, robes, ribbons, hair ties- whatever. Anything that might show you are in any way affiliated with Slytherin or Him." A pile grew at her' feet, forest green and glimmering silver. Solemnly, she raised her wand.

 

"Incendio."The pile burst into flames.

 

Protest was on the lips of some students, but their young leader didn't give them a chance. "We are Slytherin House. We are cunning, ambitious and proud. I was never ashamed to wear these colours. I don't want anyone to be ashamed of them, despite what they have meant. However, right now, we need to be us, be cunning, and realise that in order to make this work, we cannot be mistaken for the enemy. We want to fight the intruders, not the intruders and our fellow students, and seeing our colours after being banished here for not blindly vowing to die for Potter might give them the wrong idea. I'm not saying it will guarantee a fighting chance, but at the very least it increases our chance to fight." She looked around at the students, now only clad in white blouses and dark grey slacks or skirts. They had wasted enough time. "We are Slytherins. Others may despise us for it, but it's true, we do whatever it takes, even it what it takes isn't pretty or nice. We even denounce our own family, or our House. I have made the truest of friends in this house, friends that are not only brave, loyal and smart, but friends that do what it takes to get what they want, who refuse to settle for anything less than the best, and never have I been more proud to be in this House than I am today. Let's go."

\----

History books would only say that students and teachers alike fought in the battle that day. It was never explicitly stated anywhere, but everyone knew that Slytherin was not included when speaking of those students. Well, everyone, except Slytherin themselves. Every new student that got sorted in the house of ambition and cunning would at one point hear this very special secret of Hogwarts. Of Slytherins without colours protecting children, not only those in their own House, but going out and fighting and dying for those in the other three as well. The world would not remember them, but Slytherins look out for their own. They would never forget.

 


End file.
